Abstract Oil production in West Lothian in Scotland started in 1851. It was not the first place to produce oil from shale but it was the largest and most successful. This oil production led to major developments in oil refining and, as a result, a large demand for oil products was created. This new demand for oil products stimulated the search for oil around the world and resulted in the first modern-day oil well being drilled in Titusville Pennsylvania in 1859. Over the next 100 years, an estimated 75 MMbbl (million barrels) of oil and 500 Bcf (billion cubic ft) of gas were produced from the shales of West Lothian. Initially, the oil was produced from a thin layer of shale at Torbanehill near Bathgate. Later, the much thicker deposits in the Dinantian West Lothian Oil-shale Formation (WLO) were used to produce the oil, although there was also oil produced from other shales mostly in the Lower Coal Measures and Limestone Coal Formation. This paper looks at the Scottish oil-shale industry from the viewpoint of the modern-day shale-gas industry and highlights the contribution the industry made as the forerunner of the oil industry. The paper attempts to explain why the Scottish oil-shale industry was so successful and influential. Reasons why the oil-shale industry did not develop into modern oil-well production are also put forward. The Scottish shale-oil industry was successful not only thanks to James Young and his colleagues but also because of the geology of the Central Belt of Scotland and, in particular, the geochemical properties of the WLO. The shale-oil industry, natural oil seepage, free oil encountered during mining and the historical exploration drilling demonstrate a rich functioning source rock suggesting significant prospectivity for future exploration for both oil fields and shale gas.

Abstract The northern segments of the Carpathians, stretching between Limanowa (Poland) and Kosów (Ukraine), belonged to the most prolific hydrocarbon province in the world in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The earliest written accounts of natural occurrences of hydrocarbons in the Carpathians date back to the sixteenth century. In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Rzączyński, Kluk, Hacquest and Staszic provided accounts on methods of practical use related to oil. Staszic’s geological map shows numerous oil seeps and different rock types containing hydrocarbons. The development of the oil industry was triggered by Łukasiewicz’s discovery of an oil-distillation process and the construction of a kerosene lamp. Following this, the oil industry flourished in the Northern Carpathians. Oil production peaked at 2 Mt (million tons) of crude oil in 1910. In subsequent years, the level of oil production steadily decreased due to a turbulent economy. Exploration for oil, gas and ozokerite resulted in the development of modern micropalaeontology and geological mapping, with a prime example being the regional coverage of almost the entire Northern Carpathians provided by the Atlas Geologiczny Galicyi ( Geological Atlas of Galicia ), which consisted of 99 high-quality geological maps at a scale of 1:75 000. Geophysical surveying techniques were applied to subsurface mapping, and higher educational institutions were established in order to support exploration efforts.

Abstract The aim of this work is to provide a synthetic history of the Italian upstream oil and gas industry, from its early start until today. Among European countries, Italy has one of the richest abundance of evidence of hydrocarbon seepages. The populations that have inhabited the country during the various historical periods took advantage of these phenomena, harvesting oil and bitumen from the surface. A testimony of such activity is an ingot of purified bitumen dated as first century AD found in central Italy. In the nineteenth century, seepages attracted the interest of oil companies that began to explore the Apennines. The drilling of the first modern oil well was realized in 1860 near Ozzano (Parma). The first onshore seismic reflection survey was acquired in 1940. The well Caviaga-1 was drilled in 1944 near Milan, discovering a gas field of 12.5 Bcm. It was one of the major European gas fields and it marked the starting point of the modern Italian petroleum industry. The widespread use of seismic reflection triggered an intense period of exploration. The first material oil discoveries were Ragusa (in 1954) and Gela (in 1956), both in Sicily. By the mid-1950s, the first offshore seismic survey started in the Adriatic Sea. In 1959, the drilling of well Gela 21, the first offshore well in Europe, boosted further exploration possibilities. During the following decades, the level of exploration and production (E&P) activities remained high, while from the beginning of the third millennium there has been a general slowdown. Since 2007, the level of exploration drilling has dropped to under 10 wells per year. In 2014, this negative trend was further confirmed with no exploratory wells drilled. The causes of this decline derive from the exploration maturity of the biogenic gas play and from the heavy bureaucratic processes involved in obtaining authorization. However, the main cause is probably the strong opposition from environmentalist associations to any kind of petroleum activities.